Twelve-time NBA All-Star Isiah Thomas said Friday on ESPN’s “First Take” that white silence during times of social injustice involving an African-American is the same thing as violence itself.

“I look at white silence in these issues as violence,” Thomas said. “White silence is the equivalent to violence in these issues. When you’re not standing up and you’re not speaking out for your brother, right, you and I are brothers regardless of skin color, and this is where this whole race thing, this constructed race thing really separates us in this country, and that’s what we need to get underneath because any type of mistreatment of you or oppression of you I have to stand up and speak against that.”